In the United States anyway, the term 'politically correct' goes back at
least to the early 1970s. Then it was used, without irony, by members of
Maoist-Stalinist groups (Progressive Labor, the October League, the
Revolutionary Union) to describe the positions taken by their
organizations. So, one would talk about the 'politically correct' position
on black nationalism, on Bangladesh, etc. As a member of a Trotskyist
group in that period, I remember being amused at how what was 'politically
correct' changed every time China's foreign policy changed.
Gradually throughout the 1970s the term 'politically correct' began to be
used by non-affiliated leftists (and those influenced by the left), and
especially by feminists. And more and more it became used, not to refer to
political positions, but to *behavior*, especially verbal behavior. So by
the late 1970s it was common to hear people say, without irony, that it is
not politically correct to let your dinner hosts wash all the dishes
themselves, it is not politically correct to refer to someone as being
'overweight', and so on.
I'm not sure when the term was co-opted by the right as a rhetorical
device against the left -- mid 1980s I would guess. But by that time the
term had all but stopped being used by anybody in the leftist/liberal
milieu.
- fritz newmeyer

Up til now I have avoided joining in the discussion about the time of
origin of the term PC, since I was and am so far out of the loop that the
string doesn't even reach here. But James Myers' comments agree with my
own recollection of the first time I heard the expression: in December of
l985, our son returned from his first semester of college in Pennsylvania
with two new phrases:"as well"(a tag replacing "too"), and
"PC". PC he explained the same way Myers does: people who were
PC or politically correct were liberals who expected
other liberals to toe the line in matters political, and social and
literary, as well. The best I could tell, all his friends there started at
liberal and shaded off toward the left.
In our family, both "PC" and "as well" have served since that time as
verbal emblems of that college.
Rebecca Larche Moreton

Benji Wald's comments on the meaning shift of the term "politically
correct" are thought-provoking. I would like to go one step further and
assert that it is perhaps the restrictive adjective in the term which in
this case opens the phrase up for rejection from many conservatives.
In my view, to term something "politically" correct is to juxtapose
"political" correctness to "correctness" in other arenas; ie,
"politically" correct, yet--in the mind of some--socially, ethically,
morally, semantically, pragmatically (etc.) INcorrect. Thus B.Wald's
observations--and he is quite right, I believe--that the term "pc" is
linked with hypocritical mindsets follows naturally from this
juxtaposition. It would be interesting to trace the origin of this term;
it may have its beginnings in legal jargon, where its usage would not
need to betray contradictory ideals.
Perhaps this is where the rhetorical battle between liberals and
conservatives (in the American political arena, anyway) fires up: the
battle ultimately becomes one of "individual(ized)" designations versus
"globalized" designations. If this is correct, then at least the
rhetoric is being applied consistently with the ideals that each camp
(or better: each party platform) purports to uphold.
C. Rowe
roweemail.unc.edu

A (short?) comment on LSA venue policies and the meaning of PC has been
brewing in me while I read the discussion we've been having.
The head printer at my undergrad school taught me (along with how to
operate a Chief 17x22 press) to "Buy where you see a rainbow." This
essentially meant that one sends money in the direction of organizations
that improve humanity, not exploit or demean it. This has been sound
guidance for me over the years. So the criterion for rejection is/should be
an overt expression of discrimination against an undeserving group, and we
should be active in opposing this discrimination.
If this policy is to have real effect (besides depriving that ENTIRE
community of income from the conference), LSA should follow up on the
rejection with letters to the mayor/governer/chambers of commerce/hotels
stating: 'Your city/state was among the candidates for our annual
conference, which brings $X to the hosting community, and regrettably your
venue was rejected because of the enactment of <legislation>, which
violates LSA principles and standing rules. We sincerely hope that when
your city/state is nominated again, this legislation will have been
eliminated.' Without publicity, we fail to stimulate change in the
offending communities. Informing the offending community is as essential as
the policy itself. If the LSA simply avoids venues where discriminatory
policies have been enacted, its effect is merely to penalize members in
those areas, who constantly spend greater amounts on transportation to the
conference. The venue itself doesn't even know what it's missing, or why.
Second, there has been some discussion of the origin of PC, and
characterization of what it now means and how it is used. I consider myself
a liberal, a radical even. I rarely have the normative view, and even more
rarely am in consonance with the conservative or rightest view on a
subject. However, I find those who wield (what I call) political
correctness to be offensive on two counts: they make self-righteous (and
often absolute) judgements about the meaning of one's actions, following
those up with value-laden prescriptions about one's behavior, exercised at
every opportunity; they dissipate their energy trying to enforce conformity
with standards of superficial behavior they dislike, ignoring activities
that could bring about real change in the policy areas they are interested
in.
Some examples: Who decides that "No way, Jose" (out of context) is an
inherently racist expression and cannot be simply a creative rhyme? Hang a
cigarette in your mouth in a restaurant and see how many people rush up to
you with the information that smoking is not permitted - using maximally
agressive language. Try sitting through the national anthem at a basketball
game sometime (even if you LOOK like a 'foreigner') - see what politically
correct reaction you experience. Let's say that Squaw Valley is berated
into changing its name to (?) Cayouse Valley. Will this have improved the
lot of the Native American in this society? It is much easier to harrass
sponsors into curtailing ads with swimsuited women than to obtain equal pay
for equal work.
Fervent PCers are more interested in obediance than improvement. Their
confrontive and rude manner ensures that they will not convert others to
their viewpoint, but rather alienate the very audience they wish to affect.
So PC is about demonstrating one's commitments, feeling empowered, and
getting others to pay lip service to one's dictates. It isn't about
instigating meanful change, but looking 'good'. That is what I identify as
PC.
My conclusion? Let's encourage the LSA to work productively for real change
and avoid symbolic stances that only make us proud of our nobility.
Guy Modica, Associate Professor
Department of English and American Literature
Seikei University
3-3-1 Kichijoji-kitamachi
Musashino, Tokyo 180 Japan
Office telephone: +81-422-37-3608
Home fax: +81-425-23-5437
gmodicafh.seikei.ac.jp
Beyond the bright cartoons
Are darker spaces where
Small cloudy nests of stars
Seem to float on the air.
These have no proper names:
Men out alone at night
Never look up at them
For guidance or delight,
For such evasive dust
Can make so little clear:
Much less is known than not,
More far than near.
'Far Out' by Philip Larkin

Here are some early cites for politically correct/political
correctness/politically incorrect. The earliest came to me from Jesse
Sheidlower at Random House. The first seems to be literal
Jesse Sheidlower writes: Fred Shapiro of the Yale Law Library, who's the
editor of
the Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations and a
top quotation researcher, has called my attention to this
1793 (!) example. The use refers to linguistic etiquette,
and is quite close to the modern use. This is from the
Supreme Court decision _Chisholm v. Georgia_:
"The states, rather than the People, for whose sakes the
States exist, are frequently the objects which attract
and arrest our principal attention....Sentiments and
expressions of this inaccurate kind prevail in our common,
even in our convivial, language. Is a toast asked? 'The United
States,' instead of the 'People of the United States,' is
the toast given. This is not politically correct."
"Some organizations used to be pretty bad and are forbidden today, but
nevertheless it is better for a man to have belonged to a politically
incorrect organization than not to have belonged to any organization at
all." [Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister, 1947, p. 168]
earliest cite:
Phrygia was famous for its slaves-so famous that the name Phryx denoted a
slave all over the empire-and Lycaonia was notorious for bandits and
thieves. To use such words would have been equivalent to calling his
audience "slaves and robbers." But "Galatians," a term that was
politically correct, embraced everyone under Roman rule, from the
aristocrat in Antioch to the little slave girl in Iconium.
[H. V. Morton, In the Steps of St. Paul (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1936), p. 24=
4.]
Here are some other examples I got from Lexis/Nexis (dates are all 1995),
showing a variety of uses for the term:
Right-wing or conservative political correctness:
In the Reagan transition, politically correct thinking was required on
issues such as abortion [Business Week]
8. [In the 1950s] political correctness meant voting a straight
Republican ticket. [Newsweek]
9. America is divided into opposing camps of "political correctness."
One stresses legally enforced "fairness" and tolerance in race, gender, and
sexual orientation. The other worships individual rights and "traditional"
religion and family values. [Newsweek]
10. [An anti-flag-burning amendment] would be tantamount to imposing a
"speech code" and our own conservative brand of political correctness. We
freely criticize liberals for their litmus tests; let us be wary of
adopting our own. [Forbes ASAP]
political correctness as euphemism:
companies continue to be fascinated by- pick your own politically correct
term-downsizing /rightsizing/ RIF (reduction in force). [Forbes ASAP]
20. [Of resale shops]: Now, the politically correct term for such
stores is consignment shops and owners say business is brisk. [Parenting
Today]
21. [on Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie, "Eraser."]: There's a rush to
set up the buffet line as some background actors (the politically correct
term for extras) begin trickling into the film's designated holding area, a
church basement on Central Park. [Times Picayune]
22. Much of the PC activity . . . on our campus comes from the Student
Activities Office. The housing folks have long been into
euphemism/revisionism. We can't call the dorms anything but "residence
halls." [ADS-L]
political correctness as doing the right thing:
=46or all 3 methods, your code simply needs to trap the
WM_NOTIFY:TTN_NEEDTEXT message, fill out the structure, and then return any
value (although returning =D8 is politically correct). [Microsoft Systems
Journal]
60. Then there's Markoff's role. As Littman tells it, the Times
reporter was obsessed with the hacker. "I've thought about trying to catch
Mitnick," he allegedly told Littman on two occasions. "But I guess that
wouldn't be politically correct." [Newsweek]
Sending an [email] memo to the CEO of your company is as easy as sending
one to the mail clerk, if not always politically correct. [Information
Week]
- ------
Dennis Baron debaronuiuc.edu
Department of English office: 217-333-2392
University of Illinois fax: 217-333-4321
608 S. Wright Street home: 217-384-1683
Urbana, IL 61801

With regards to the history of the term 'political correctness', there is
a discussion of precisely this in Deborah Cameron's book 'Verbal
Hygiene' (1995, Routledge). There is also a discussion of recent debates
over 'grammar' (standard vs. non-standard, etc.) in Great Britain and Wales.

- ---------------------------------------
James T Myers wrote on 08 June 1996
I suggest that the terms
>"politically correct" and "PC" both appeared on college campuses in
>the mid-1980's among more LEFTIST students. The terms were originally
>used by left-leaning students to poke gentle fun at other specific
>leftists or leftist campus groups, not to make fun of non-sexist
>language, etc, in general.
I think James is right. Long time ago, maybe a year or so ago, I happend to
read an article on the phenomenon "political correctness" either in News
Week or in Time. It was mentioned that this term is borrowed from the
Chinese Cultural Revolution where Mao required people to be "politically
correct". Of course, this term was used in a different sense than it is
right now. I have remebered it because it was so striking to me to bring
it into connection with Mao. Maybe someone who has easy access to these two
journals can check it.
- J.L